Defining Civil Defense in the Information Age
Abstract
With the advent of the information age the United States has lost the "sanctuary" that it has enjoyed for over 200 years. In the past ordinary citizens and businesses could be protected by control of the airspace, land, and the seas. Now an attack may be launched directly against a citizen passing right through (or around) all our traditional lines of defense. The environment for developing and implementing national security policy is neither designed nor equipped to deal with events resulting from sources not rooted in the temporal or physical restrictions of the past. Today's interagency approach to national security is not compatible with the speeds of the information age. Current government and civil institutions led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are not designed to deal with attacks and natural disasters that move at the speed of light, crossing geographic and legal boundaries with impunity. The National Security Council (NSC) needs to define the boundaries that separate technology-based attacks that are merely a nuisance from those that constitute national security threats.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1995
- Accession Number
- ADA394507
Entities
People
- Earle L. Rudolph Jr
- W. O. Round
Organizations
- National Defense University